Ben Chilwell called up to replace Reece James in England squad

As expected, Reece James will not be joining up with the England squad for the international break as he continues to deal with a “very painful” ankle injury. Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel had expressed some surprise that the wing-back even got the call, and had already made it pretty clear that it was not going to be happening.

And that has now been confirmed by the Three Lions as well, who have called up fellow Chelsea full back Ben Chilwell instead. Chilwell has not featured much for Chelsea this season, but did start our last game — and of course he was part of the Euro squad, though he didn’t get to see a single minute of action unfortunately.

England have also added Tammy Abraham to the squad (without dropping anyone), rewarding him for his good start to the season as José Mourinho’s AS Roma.

So, if you’re keeping count, that’s two current Chelsea players (Mount, Chilwell) and two Chelsea-grown players (Tomori, Abraham) in the squad, plus however you want to label Declan Rice, who was here until his mid-teens. Incidentally, the only non-Premier League based player in the squad other than our Serie A duo is Atlético Madrid’s Kieran Trippier. Worldwide!